Photograph
by xCyaniide
Summary: Moody/Tonks Friendship. Tonks finds a photograph of Moody before he had his magical eye.


Tonks was sitting in the Auror department with a whole filing cabinet spread out before her. She had decided she would sort one of them out for a change rather than just stuffing more paperwork into it like she usually did. And besides, she had very little else to do that day as the majority of the Aurors were out at their Christmas party. She had been meaning to go but she hadn't got around to getting anything to wear and she didn't have a date; something which she despised if she was going to a party. She hated to be seen there alone.

As she moved some paperwork around on the desk, she found a few old newspapers which looked as if they hadn't seen day light for 20 years. She smiled a little, picking one up and flicking through it, finding several different articles about the Ministry.

Once she had read through them, she picked up another paper and, low and behold, on the front page was a picture of Alaster Mad-Eye Moody. The thing which was most surprising about it, though, was the fact that he didn't have his trademark Mad-Eye in the photograph. He didn't even have the scar that ran from one side of his face to the other. He just looked normal, just like an ordinary man would have looked. In the picture, he couldn't have been any more than 25 years old which she found a little strange. She had often believed that Moody had always been old. Of course, that wasn't possible. But she didn't realise he hadn't always had the scar and eye since working at the Ministry.

As she stared at the photograph as it smiled and waved as these photos tended to do, she heard the door click open and the familiar clunk of Moody's staff as he walked. She smiled a little to herself, thinking she should ask him about the photograph. "Wotcher Moody," she said, smiling at him. "Nice photo," she added, hoping he wouldn't mind that she had found it.

"Photo?" he questioned, walking over to the desk and round behind her to take a look at it for himself, "That was years ago during training," he smiled a little as he watched himself and all of his old friends looking happy and as though they were having fun. "Where did you find that?" he asked, having not seen it for quite some time.

"It was in the filing cabinet. I thought I'd clean it," she replied and handed the photo to Moody. "It's a nice photo of you."

"Thanks," he said, "There's not many around before I got my eye," he frowned a little, "It's been years since I've had this thing," he added and took it out of its socket, rolling it around in his hand before replacing it in its rightful place once again.

"You never did tell me how you got it," Tonks commented, wondering if he would tell her.

"Didn't I?" he asked, frowning slightly, "Do you really want to know?"

"If you want to tell me," she replied, knowing it was a sensitive topic for him. She turned herself round and sat on the desk, as if waiting for him to tell the story.

"Okay, it all began on a cold winter's day, a little like this one in fact. Nothing much was likely to happen as is usual with training courses. They don't like to put people in danger during their days of training but that day they were wrong. A hoard of death eaters arrived in Hogsmeade that evening and basically slaughtered all of my friends and the Aurors training them. Only I and a couple of others survived but I was the only one that remained at the Ministry. I was given a fake eye that would allow me to be more vigilant in the future. I don't want to make the same mistake with Aurors I train as the ones that trained me made."

Tonks listened to Moody's story and frowned a little, "So you never saw any of your friends again?" she asked.

Moody shook her head, "No, not alive anyway."

"I'm sorry," Tonks said, hopping off the table and moving over to the window, "It must have been very hard for you. And to have your eye there as a constant reminder-"

"The eye doesn't necessarily remind me of that," he replied, "I use it more to remind me to protect others. To save them. To stop the same thing happening again."

Tonks nodded and smiled, turning back to Moody, "You're a good Auror. Sometimes the whole 'Constant Vigilance' thing can get rather repetitive but then at the same time, if it makes you feel better about everything and makes you feel like you're successfully doing your job, then I'm sure we can all put up with it," she laughed.

"I'm sorry if I overuse it and annoy you all. I don't mean to," he frowned slightly and sat down in the chair Tonks had been in previously, "If it ever gets too much, tell me to stop," he added.

"No, its fine," she said, smiling and moving next to him, looking down at the photograph that was still in Moody's hand. "It's fine," she repeated.

Moody looked up at Tonks and she just smiled at him. She would never repeat this conversation to anyone because Moody obviously had his reasons for keeping photographs like this one hidden. He had reasons to do so and she saw no reason in telling everyone when he clearly didn't want to.


End file.
